Teacher mental health

Jennette Arnold: Many teachers have had to rapidly pivot to entirely new ways of working, which could exacerbate existing mental health problems among London’s teaching workforce. Could you work with schools and teachers to facilitate support groups and mentoring across London?

The Mayor: My Healthy Schools London programme helps schools to support the health and wellbeing of their pupils and teachers across London, working with 2177 schools and approximately 170,000 school staff.
My HSL Team are currently providing Healthy Schools borough leads with support, resources and publications, and signposting to organisations that are focussed on supporting the COVID response for children and young people, families and schools.
There is a specific focus on teacher wellbeing. Participants in the Getting Ahead London programme for London teachers are receiving support via virtual coaching on topics including resilience and well-being. Our new Stepping into Leadership programme for BAME teachers will also support teachers from September as they return to work during the recovery period.

No-Go Areas (2)

Peter Whittle: To ask the Mayor are there any no-go areas for the London Ambulance Service in London?

The Mayor: This is not information held by the GLA. However, I have asked the London Ambulance Service about the issue and they have assured me that there are no parts of London that they consider as a ‘no-go area’, where they do not attend at all. The London Ambulance Service remains committed to continuing to provide equal standards of care across the capital.
The London Ambulance Service do take steps to ensure the safety of their staff when carrying out their duties. There is a register of individual addresses where past experience suggests the personal safety of staff might be at risk. All patients whose addresses are on the register are informed of their inclusion. This means that in some circumstances the Metropolitan Police Service may be requested to attend one of these addresses prior to a London Ambulance Service crew’s arrival, or a risk assessment may be undertaken on arrival.

Supporting health and social care through coronavirus

Onkar Sahota: How has the GLA family supported health and social care services to prepare, react, and recover from the coronavirus pandemic?

The Mayor: Protecting the health and safety of Londoners has always been our number one priority and, thanks to the hard work and dedication of our health and care service professionals, we’re delaying the spread of the virus and ensuring that our NHS is not overwhelmed.
As restrictions in the capital begin to ease it is vital that we maintain a coordinated response and ensure Londoners remain protected.
In London our response to the pandemic is coordinated by the Strategic Coordination Group. Within this structure there is a dedicated coronavirus health oversight subgroup, led by the NHS. The group also includes Public Health England, Local Authority Directors of Social Care and the voluntary sector.
Over 300 operational members of London Fire Brigade (LFB) staff have been working with the London Ambulance Service (LAS) driving ambulances and assisting paramedics to enable LAS to maintain an effective service. LFB has also supported the delivery of up to six million items of PPE for social care providers across London’s boroughs via the LFB Distribution Centre in Croydon. LFB also provided over 150 staff, who volunteered to form part of a Pandemic Multi-Agency Response Team (PMART), which included driving vehicles and were involved in the wrapping and recovery of bodies and mortuary support.

Childhood Obesity Taskforce

Andrew Boff: What measures is the Childhood Obesity Taskforce putting in place in response to the Covid-19 lockdown?

The Mayor: It is clear that the Covid-19 lockdown has the potential to impact on the whole of children’s mental and physical health and wellbeing. This includes families’ ability to maintain a healthy weight through access to healthier food options, good hydration and physical activity. As the Prime Minister has now recognised, obesity is a risk factor for a number of health conditions including the severity of symptoms being experienced from COVID-19. This means it's more crucial than ever that we act early to support London’s children to maintain a healthy weight now, so that we reduce their risk of becoming obese adults. It is positive that Government appears to have had a change of heart with regard to their role in addressing the UK's high rate of overweight and obesity.
The Taskforce are therefore working to understand this impact on London’s children by collaborating with partners and other global cities to develop insights into the reality of children’s lives during this period. This will inform how their recommendations, set out in Every Child a Healthy Weight can be delivered through whole system action by partners in London in this changing context.
In the immediate term, the Taskforce continue to champion the work underway by boroughs and voluntary sector partners and to work closely with the London Food Board in ensuring food reaches the most vulnerable families.

Employment rights hub coronavirus advice

Onkar Sahota: Will your Employment Rights Hub advise workers to follow their section 44 rights under the Employment Rights Act and refuse to remain in an unsafe workplace, in the event of it not meeting covid-secure guidance to be published by the Government imminently?

The Mayor: Everyone has a right to be safe at work, whatever their occupation. That’s why no-one should be forced to return to work until their workplace is compliant with Covid-19 Secure guidance. I’m doing all I can to help London’s employers understand and apply the new guidance, and I welcome the government’s £14m investment in the Health and Safety Executive to enforce the rules.
It’s important that workers understand their rights and how to enforce them. My Employment Rights Hub is being regularly updated with the latest information about how workers’ rights pertain to the current situation. It is available in more than 20 languages, in written and video format, including guidance about health and safety at work. The Employment Rights Hub can be found here: https://www.london.gov.uk/coronavirus/employment-rights-business-guidance-and-coronavirus-covid-19/coronavirus-and-employment-rights
Londoners should always seek expert advice before taking action on a problem at work. My Employment Rights Hub includes links to sources of expert advice who can help workers understand the rights and options available to them.

Streetspace

Tony Devenish: With regard to your Streetspace plan, how will you ensure you meet your legal duties to consult before progressing with cycling schemes on Park Lane, CW9 and elsewhere?

The Mayor: My Streetspace Plan is being delivered in line with the statutory guidance issued by the Department for Transport on Saturday 9 May. Local authorities are being urged to move swiftly to reallocate road space to people walking and cycling, both to encourage active travel and to enable social distancing. I have asked Transport for London (TfL) to put together an ambitious programme which achieves this. We must play our part in keeping the public safe. TfL is carrying out appropriate levels of engagement in line with the Government’s statutory guidance and its legal duties, reflecting the imperative to act quickly in the interests of public safety.

Healthy, sustainable food

Leonie Cooper: There is increasing evidence that poor diet, linked to food poverty, is a contributing factor to Covid-19 mortality. How can you support Londoners to grow food, including those who live in flats, to reduce costs and increase access to healthy, sustainable food?

The Mayor: COVID-19 has exacerbated levels of household food insecurity with many vulnerable Londoners struggling to financially and physically access healthy and sustainable food. Along with pressures on London’s supply chains, this has resulted in an increased reliance on processed, non-perishable foods and a reduction in fresh fruit and vegetable intake.
My London Food Strategy highlights the critical role community food growing plays in providing social, economic, health and environmental benefits. There has never been a more important time for community gardens to safely operate, address social isolation during the current crisis and support local food resilience. I am pleased to have supported the Capital Growth network, which helps over 2,700 community food growing spaces across London, engaging over 150,000 Londoners in food growing since its launch in 2010. I look forward to exploring how I can support community food growing as part of London’s recovery from the crisis.
My London Plan also provides support for boroughs to identify opportunities for food growing on vacant sites, as meanwhile uses or in new developments.

TfL Modelling

Keith Prince: TfL has stated ‘early modelling’ suggests there could be a ’10-fold increase in cycling and a 5-fold increase in walking’. That would mean that 20% of all journeys in London would be made by bicycle. Will the Mayor send me that modelling data?

The Mayor: Even in a very early stage lockdown release, tens of thousands of trips would need to shift from public transport to active modes to maintain social distancing. This could rapidly become hundreds of thousands if demand increases to even half of pre-coronavirus levels, implying a massive uplift in active travel numbers and urgent need for action.
The 10-fold increase in cycling and 5-fold increase in walking is based on an early desktop exercise looking at a range of data sources for travel in London and reflects a maximum mode shift scenario. It assumes a total removal of lockdown restrictions and the maximum amount of commuting trips that might wish to return to public transport. With a significant reduction in available public transport capacity due to social distancing measures, these figures are based on the surplus public transport demand shifting to walking and cycling, taking into account trip distance limitations for these modes and their pre-lockdown relative mode shares. The work however does not capture attitudes to active travel or the impact of pedestrian and cycling infrastructure.
The resulting increase in walking and cycling does lead to longer trips being made overall and gives around a 10-fold increase in cycling distance and up to a 5-fold increase in walking distance. This is summarised in the table below:
Base
Max Redistribution
Change
Cycling
Total 24hr commuting distance (km)
990,000
11,000,000
11
Walking
Total 24hr commuting distance (km)
690,000
3,200,000
5
* figures rounded to 2 significant figures